seinen

Erased (Because What Smart-Ass, Alternate Title Could I Come Up With?)

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Erased (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi)

It has been a while since I’ve posted due to life and time constraints. Due to the nature of this show and what can I say about it without giving away too much, I’ll keep my review brief.

Erased was probably my favorite anime of the winter season. Well written, animated, and paced. Erased is what I want out of a show: enjoyable to watch and leaving me looking forward to the next week’s episode.

In short the show follows Satoru Fujinuma. We meet Satoru as adult who has a strange ability (or perhaps affliction?): He goes back in time a few minutes to prevent potentially tragic events from happening. After an accident that involves one of these episodes that leaves Satoru in the hospital, a series of events causes his ability to kick him back to his past in elementary school to prevent a series of child abductions and murders.

What follows is an engaging murder mystery/ thriller. We follow Satoru desperately trying to save his fellow classmates as a young child. We see him trying have the knowledge of an adult while re-living his past as a child. All of this made for a fun watch.

Attention Parents: While there is not a ton of violence shown or fan service, it is a disturbing subject matter. It is about child abduction and murder: that’s heavy stuff and I would suggest vetting it if you are considering letting your child watch it.

It is really worth a view. And very nice to look at to boot!

Happy viewing!

-no images in this post are owned by this site.

 

Cute Girls Doing Cute Things: AKA Seinen anime

madreceiver2 Comments

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From Wikipedia: Seinen manga (青年漫画?) is manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 17 on into their 40s. In Japanese, the word seinen means “young man” or “young men.”

Hanayamata and Girls und Panzer are both of the seinien genre. They are both, as the title of the post implies, shows about cute girls doing cute things.

Hanayamata follows Naru Sekiya who feels average and doesn’t feel like she has much going for her until she meets a new transfer student from America (Hana N. Fountainstand) and they start a Yosakoi dance club at school. The show then follows them as they, practice, recruit members, and get ready for the big Yosakoi competition.

There is nothing inherently bad about the show. It’s cute. The story is what you’d expect and the characters are fairly standard, but not bad. Despite it not being all that remarkable I enjoyed the show.

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Attention Parents: There is nothing objectionable in this show.

I like the OP:

Girls und Panzer is a show that depicts tank warfare as a sport for high school girls. Referred to as “sensha-dō” aka “the way of the tank” is a popular martial art where teams of high school girls operate and fight with WWII era tanks. They live and go to school on Academy Ships which are large carriers that support an entire community.

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The story follows  Miho Nishizumi. A girl from a prominent “tankery”

family who has just transferred to a new school that doesn’t have a “tankery” program any longer. Tankery, needless to say, is revived and Miho is roped into taking tankery as an elective course. They then do the predictable things: get tanks, get members, train, and compete until the final big event.

It is a fun show. It is tanks fights with cute girls. The supporting teams are what made the show fun for me.
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The volleyball team

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The history club team

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The video gamers team

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The Student council team

The supporting team are a laugh and give the show some extra character. Is the show innovative or outstanding? No, it’s fun. Just mindless fun.

Attention Parents: There is nothing objectionable.

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And there is dancing…

So what makes this Seinen? I guess it is the market it appeals to: young men. Both of these shows follow teen girls which I guess is what the appeal is. The shows themselves are not overtly sexual, but the art that fans make after the fact are more so:

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It may not be the show that one finds objectionable, but the fan’s reaction to the show. Then again, this is the internet. If someone can think it they will. This applies to these shows as well.

Watch the shows. They’re cute and fun. Just don’t search Google images about the shows you enjoy.